I was able to catch a few minutes of Power Play on Friday, enough to see Jane Taber criticize the Prime Minister for not being excited enough about Mubarak's resignation in Egypt. As she put it, this is a joyous occasion and the Prime Minister should be praising it and expressing happiness. I get that Mubarak is a bad guy and I would never want to live under his rule, but I don't think our Prime Minister should start singing and dancing when a Western ally is overthrown. He handled it exactly as he should have.
Like him or not, Mubarak kept the peace in Egypt for 30 years. I will wait to decide how great this move is when I see who finally ends up replacing him. If it is another Nasser, we have a problem. It is all fine and dandy to watch the corrupt dictator leave, and if a functional democracy takes hold, power to the people. If the next leader wants to wipe Israel off the map, we have a problem. By the way, wasn't it the George Bush people who said that if you install a democracy in Babylon, it will spread to other countries in the region? I would ask Jane Taber, do you think Bush deserves any credit for this wonderful happening?
I'm just saying...
-Like him or not, Mubarak kept the peace in Egypt for 30 years. I will wait to decide how great this move is when I see who finally ends up replacing him. If it is another Nasser, we have a problem. It is all fine and dandy to watch the corrupt dictator leave, and if a functional democracy takes hold, power to the people. If the next leader wants to wipe Israel off the map, we have a problem. By the way, wasn't it the George Bush people who said that if you install a democracy in Babylon, it will spread to other countries in the region? I would ask Jane Taber, do you think Bush deserves any credit for this wonderful happening?
ReplyDeleteBingo. You know that apocryphal "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch" well thats Mubabrak.
Its the name of the game folks. In some times we sided with some mean military dictators in South America to stop the USSR, supported Pinochet(which I mentioned worked as Chile's economy and political system as result of Pinochet deposing Allende democracy would not be possible nor Western style capitalism). As for Mubarak, as with Somoza he's a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch.
If we get another Nasser here, their will be a war and the opinion in Israel will never be higher to take back the Sinai to protect against and many on the right of the spectrum did not like giving it up on the first place. Also even if Obama withdraws the funds for the Egyptians would will step up? Saudi Arabia, Iran? So they will just go after Israel with Russian junk again. Only good thing there is Israel is made the Middle East a graveyard for those carrying a AK-47, driving a T-55, T-72, and flying MiGs. Though the thought of a war doesnt please or get me giddy nor do I think Netanayahu spends his days on how to start a war with Egypt these days with a Holocaust denying President on the East who talks of the 12th Imam and acquires nukes and targets every country that disagrees with it.
As for functional democracy, the problem with Egypt is that it has no system to look back towards or even Western ideals. Even Iran pre-1979 and Afghanistan before the Soviets and Taliban blew it to pieces were most Western than what is Egypt. Egypt, Pew Research Global Studies is disturbing 49/48 Fav/Unfav for Hamas, 30 for Hezbollah, 20 for Al Qaeda, its gets more disturbing when you talk about adultery, theft and cutting your hand off, and the punishment of death for leaving Islam. How can this be a democracy if someone who replaces Mubabrak installs this. And no one I see around the world cares a bit about Egypt's poor Coptic Chrisitan minority who is already terrorized under Mubarak, the shit will hit the fan for them worse under a Islamist government. Think of Iran and the Bahai's.
As for Taber, it was fun for the liberals to bash Bush when he was President, the sport known as Bushbashing. Now they are going to use that card to see Obama is strong and has a clue.
As for Obama, he needs to say he supports democracy in Iran, Burma, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador too. He failed to deliver.
Thank you for another essential article. Where else could anyone get that kind of information in such a complete way of writing? I have a presentation incoming week, and I am on the lookout for such information.
ReplyDeleteNice rant John!
ReplyDeleteThe Conservatives are riding high in the polls so she wants to make Harper look bad to Egyptian immigrants in Canada and other Arab groups.
ReplyDeletegeorge bush?
ReplyDeleteHow about the thousands of brave egyptians who risked their lives out taking action that resulted in tis?
Georgie pordgie is off playing golf or something having perrier poured for him.
Ice, You are thinking the same thoughts as myself, well I am happy to see what has transpired in Egypt, I am extremely nervous about what will happen next, when the people of Iran overthrew the Shah in 79, is the govt they have now, what they expected and wanted. This is far from over in Egypt, all we can do is cross our fingers now and hope for the best. As to giggles comments, I truly believe that PMSH could find a cure for cancer and she would bitch he took to long.
ReplyDeleteKingston
heh , a couple of years ago , when the PM said something about Palestine , i think it was , Harper lacks "nuance " was the collective cry . Adler's even catching it now after Cameron made his multi-culti speech . " Why didn't Harper say that ,? " he bellows , all over the corus radio network .
ReplyDeleteWhy anyone would care what "Giggles" Taber has to say is beyond me. Of course all well meaning people wish for peace, democracy and good government in Egypt and I suspect the PM is among them. The response of the Canadian government as well as the leaders of all of Canada's political parties was reasoned and of necessity cautious. Commentators such as Taber have to create issues to fill their columns and to engage in babble-talk to entertain.
ReplyDeleteIn what now looks like contagion, this is all driven by economic because despots can’t feed the large populations. They’ve milked their hijacked countries for personal benefit. There was a time when “he’s our SOB made sense”; that was during the lesser of evils game with the USSR, we are in entitled to do what we have to do in our security/self-interest But Bush recognized those days Cold War days were over and now the ME deserves a shot at liberty like everyone else.
ReplyDeleteIt is the despots who drive the people, particularly unemployed young males, to radical Islam. Despots like Mubarak claimed that if he were not in power the Islamists would take over. When in fact it was the deteriorating economy caused by Mubarak’s fascism that was the biggest single recruiting factor into radical Islam.
This is a big game change and it’s Bush’s fault for starting it in Iraq…thankfully!
Meanwhile, PMSH had this to say and no doubt Giggles will do a media jihad in it:
"We want to see free and fair elections" in Egypt," he said. "We want to see the rule of law and stability. We want to see respect for human rights, including the rights of minorities, including the rights of religious minorities.
"And we want to see a government that will continue to respect peace treaties and seek peace in the Middle East."
Harper also noted, "A transition is taking place in Egypt... (and) there is no going back... They're not going to put the toothpaste back in the tube on this one."
nomdeblog
i wonder will taber be excited when the muslims in canada become strong enough to tape her mouth shut and cover her in a burka. canada is not a powerful country. after the second world war we allowed successive governments to reduce our position in the world and we will never have any serious clout again. if the pm totally ignored egypt it would not matter.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all Jane Taber is an idiot and I don't know why a major network or paper keeps her on. Having said that the issue is not Mubarak leaving it is what comes next. The military are in control now and having tasted real power will they turn the government over to civilian authority in due course. Harper is a cautious man and while the events have gone the way of the protesters there are many concerns still be addressed. Taber on the other hand I believe is an air head and should not be considered seriously in anything she writes or says.
ReplyDeleteCAN THE MILITARY AVERT A TERRORIST TAKEOVER?
ReplyDeleteHarper, the leader of an irrelevant, at least to the Middle East, country was reasonable to be very vigilant pursuant to the Egyptian disturbance, especially when the likely conclusion will be an eventual conquest by the terrorist organization, Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and their extreme Islamic fanatics who have exploited this outburst with delirious, inexorable Islamic rant and rage. With Mohamed ElBaradei as their figurehead puppet, the terrorists MB will attempt to convert Egypt into another Iran or perhaps Brotherhood-subjugated Turkey as they initiate a second High Caliphate epoch.
Recall that ElBaradei is an anti-American leftist who was an apologist for Khamenei and Ahmedinejad’s nuclear aspirations. He is now the disingenuous mouthpiece for the MB which is an Islamic organization that has a brutal and sadistic history of terrorism, and also was the intellectual inspiration for the creation of terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda and Hamas. Many believe that the MB was responsible for the assassination of Sadat in 1981 after they rejected the Camp David Accord in the late 1970s. In 2008 the barbaric MB lionized bin Laden saying he was a “mujahid”, an idiom of tribute for a jihad warrior, rather than a terrorist. The MB’s mobs of thugs have hijacked the secular revolution spiraling it into a religious jihad by hordes of Islamic extremist screaming their philosophy: “Allah is our objective, the Prophet is our leader, the Koran is our law, jihad is our way, and dying in the way of Allah is our highest objective”
Barack Hussein Obama and his inexpert Secretary of State, who is looking “over the horizon” as they throw Mubarak under the bus, should recall that the barbaric Muslin Brotherhood’s goal is not to establish a liberal democracy regime, but to impose Islamic totalitarianism, implement radical Islamic Shari law as promoted by Al Qaeda, obliterate Israel, politicize the strategically indispensable Mediterranean canal, and most significantly institute an Islamic High Caliph compared with the 8th & 9th centuries. Could Egypt be the first of a succession of Islamic fascist governments that are immovably antagonistic to Western liberal democracies?
Regretfully much of the Western World has been courting and coddling radical Islamists for too many years. Many Western administrations have welcomed the Brotherhood’s Islamist associates such as CAIR, The Muslim American Society, the Islamic Society of North America, and radical, activist’s mosque even though some of them have supported Hamas. Barack Hussein Obama thinks he can work with these radical Islamists, and has courted them; he invited the MB to his 2009 Cairo speech, and has supported the Ground Zero mosque activists.
Daniel Pipe, director of the Middle East Forum, advises that “Islamists wish to repeat their success in Iran by exploiting popular unrest to take power”
--machiavelli
Nomdeblog spill on aisle three. Radical Islam is not a driving force amongst the poor and unemployed. It is a driving force amongst the rich and well educated. Radical Islam is socialism with a religious veneer. It is top down elitist driven ideology based on the premise that 'We the elite know better than you'. The twin brothers, Radical Islam and Socialism, use the gullibility of the poor by promising them free advantage but never deliver on their promise with the result that the down trodden are even more downtrodden except now they have the extra barrier to freedom of intellectually and emotionally supporting their overlords. Radical Islam and Socialism are con jobs. Like PM Harper I am not thrilled to see the events unfold in Egypt unfold the way they have unfolded. I am not a supporter of dictators Mubarak included but the way to be rid of dictators never comes through riots in the street. Overthrows by riots has an unblemished record of bringing in a worse tyrant. I would have much preferred to wait until September and then ensure a free and democratic vote to elect the next leader.
ReplyDeleteWow ... hard to keep up with you, with so many posts ... but anyway
ReplyDeleteOn Power & Politics, Solomon's "power panel" also thought PM Harper's reaction to the Egypt situation was "tepid." Terry Milewski, Greg Weston, and Solomon all smirked at the analogy the PM used when asked a question in Newfoundland about Egypt. The PM said that the situation was like the proverbial toothpaste out of the tube -- no way to get it back in, meaning of course that change in Egypt was inevitable.
The one exception was Rob Russo, who pointed out the White House had gotten the situation wrong, expecting Mubarak to resign and then Mubarak delivered his 'no, I'm staying' Thursday speech.
What the smirkers did NOT mention is that the PM's remarks on Egypt were made PRIOR to the announcement that Mubarak had resigned.
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/insidepolitics/2011/02/subtle-differences-on-egypt.html
"It's a position Harper reiterated more clearly Friday in Newfoundland and Labrador when he said: "Our strong recommendations to those in power would be to lead change. To be part of it and to make a bright future happen for the people of Egypt."
It's important to note Harper said that about three hours before Egyptian vice-president Omar Suleiman announced Mubarak had finally resigned."
Solomon also omitted to mention PM Harper's Statement, which I received in my email inbox at February 11, 2011 5:48:47 PM EST (CA), saying instead that there had been no formal acknowledgement of the resignation.
I wanted to view Solomon's show again to see exactly when he said there had been no reaction from the PMO, but the CBC site where I usually view Power & Politics is not working today. I wonder why?
-- Gabby in QC
OK, I was able to view the Power & Politics video after all. At the beginning of the show, when Solomon was talking about Egypt with Bob Rae and Paul Dewar, the three of them pointed to Obama's 'inspirational' speech while deriding the PM's toothpaste remark.
ReplyDeleteBut, as usual, they conveniently omitted some essential information. The PM responded off the cuff to a reporter's question PRIOR to the announcement of Mubarak's resignation (see CBC link I provided previously) whereas Obama read a prepared speech AFTER the announcement.
Solomon later showed a short clip of the PM's answer to the reporter's question mentioning it had been given "just before" Mubarak's resignation.
Oops! February 12, 2011 11:29 AM comment is mine -- Gabby in QC
ReplyDeleteIn Cairo, Bush's dream come to life
ReplyDeleteNational Post · Saturday, Feb. 12, 2011
On Nov. 19, 2003, eight months after the invasion of Iraq, George W. Bush delivered a speech at London's Whitehall Palace. In light of Friday's dramatic events in Egypt, it is a moment worth revisiting.
"Lasting peace is gained as justice and democracy advance," the former U.S. president declared. "By advancing freedom in the greater Middle East, we help end a cycle of dictatorship and radicalism that brings millions of people to misery and brings danger to our own people ... Many governments are realizing that theocracy and dictatorship do not lead to national greatness; they end in national ruin."
Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/Cairo+Bush+dream+come+life/4269825/story.html
Arabs don't appreciate interference
ReplyDeleteThank Allah that Bob Rae is a nobody because if he had his way he would follow Travers advice and been in Cairo leading the demonstrators to overthrow Mubarek like Travers would have liked Harper to do. The United Arab Emirates and other Arab countries would have been quick to condemn Canada and taken retaliatory action. Bob Rae could have had all our landing rights vanish over nite in Arab countries.